Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said the agency has deployed “on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action.”
Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said the agency has deployed “on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action.”
'This decision should in no way be interpreted as a reflection on the school or the exceptional care the children have received there,' a spokesman for the couple said.
'This decision should in no way be interpreted as a reflection on the school or the exceptional care the children have received there,' a spokesman for the couple said.
The “conference” that the Ukrainian company BioTexCom had announced for September 12–13 in Warsaw has no venue — the owner of the premises refuses to rent it out. This is the result of pressure exerted for weeks by Polish legal organization Ordo Iuris and other groups.
Centrum Żoliborz, which rents out training rooms at 49 Aleje Jerozolimskie in Warsaw has stated that it will not rent premises to that company and that BioTexCom had no right to use its address. Polish media reported the venue would host the “conference” with Ukrainian company BioTexCom on September 12–13.
To those now asking about the possibility to take part in the conference, BioTexCom replies that the event has been postponed to another date and will not take place for the time being. The reason given is the safety of the company’s clients. The company itself, meanwhile, is redirecting interested parties to individual conversations via WhatsApp. The announcement of the Warsaw event nevertheless still appears on BioTexCom’s website, which is why vigilance in this matter remains necessary.
On September 7, Ordo Iuris put a question to Centrum Żoliborz asking whether the Ukrainian company had in fact reserved a room there. The reply Ordo Iuris received left no doubt:
“I would like to inform you that we received an inquiry from this entity about the possibility of renting a training room. An offer was sent, but no room was reserved. At the same time, I wish to inform you that, after learning what this entity does, we categorically do not want to enter into any cooperation with it or to rent it our training rooms. This company had no right whatsoever to use our address.”
This is an important signal. When the owners of venues learn what a “surrogacy program” actually is and what legal risk may be involved in making premises available to promote it, they decided to refuse the client. In this case, it was enough for the matter to come to light: the Ordo Iuris Institute’s notification to prosecutors, a petition, appeals from Catholic Action and the Polish Bishops’ Conference, an announced picket, as well as action from, among others, the Center for Life and Family and dozens of press publications. Pressure works.
It would be premature, however, to declare victory. The announcement of the Warsaw event scheduled for September 12–13 still appears on biotexcom.pl. Nor has the company withdrawn from the Polish market. Instead, it has moved its offer to an individual channel, proposing free online “consultations.” The matter therefore requires continued attention and firm opposition.
A company that puts children on sale
The scale of BioTexCom’s disregard for elementary ethical standards is not a matter of interpretation. In November 2021, the company ran a Black Friday promotion: from November 15 to 26, it offered a 3-percent discount on all packages. In practice, this meant €1,947 off the “All inclusive VIP” package worth €64,900 and €447 off the “Perfect Chance” in vitro program costing €14,900. The advertisements urged people to hurry in order to “make it” in time for the discount and fulfill the dream of a child more quickly. The child became a seasonal sale item — exactly like a television set or a washing machine.
The company’s price list is built like a catalog of tourist services: packages from €36,900 to €64,900, divided into “standard,” “standard plus,” and “VIP” versions. The difference is that the object of the transaction is a human being.
“Warehouses” of human goods. A lesson from 2020
The world saw the most telling image of this business in May 2020. BioTexCom then published a video in which 46 newborns could be seen arranged in rows of transparent cribs at the Venice hotel in Kyiv — normally used to receive the company’s foreign clients. The video, translated into several languages, was meant to mobilize buyers to pressure their own embassies and foreign ministries into granting permission to enter Ukraine, which was closed because of the pandemic. The message was unambiguous: the goods ordered are on site, waiting in optimal storage conditions. The camera panning over the rows of infants involuntarily evoked an association with a production line.
It was estimated at the time that around 500 children born to surrogate mothers for foreign clients were stranded in Ukraine. Ukraine took over this market after Asian countries — following a series of scandals — banned the sale to foreigners of children born through surrogacy.
Before the outbreak of the full-scale war in Ukraine, BioTexCom accounted for about two-thirds of Ukraine’s exports of this “service,” estimated at around 2,000 newborns a year. In 2018–2019, the company and its owner were at the center of an investigation into more than a thousand irregular surrogacy procedures; no charges were brought against him at the time, however.
In August 2019, the Australian broadcaster ABC showed how children born with disabilities are abandoned by the commissioning parents, who refuse to take delivery of “defective” goods — they then end up in Ukrainian orphanages and public hospitals.
The French precedent: a fair that had to leave Paris
France’s experience shows that consistent social and legal pressure can lead to the permanent cancellation of events of this kind, such as the “conference” BioTexCom had planned in Warsaw. For years, Paris hosted the “Désir d’enfant” fair, later held under the name “Wish for a Baby,” at which — just as BioTexCom intended to do in Warsaw — surrogacy services were promoted, even though they are illegal in France.
For several years, Le Syndicat de la Famille (formerly La Manif Pour Tous) had run a campaign against the fair’s organizers that included demonstrations, leafleting, undercover-camera footage, and lawsuits against the organizers and the owners of the venues. The lawsuits accused them of complicity in surrogacy brokering. As pressure mounted, the fair first had to leave the Espace Champerret and move to the smaller Espace Charenton. Finally, on April 16, 2025, the organizers announced that the event would be moved to Brussels, giving up any further presence in Paris.
“This victory is the fruit of a mobilization carried on year after year,” commented Ludovine de La Rochère, the organization’s president. The problem nevertheless remains: the French continue to use surrogacy services provided abroad — for example, in the United States in the case of same-sex couples, or in cheaper Ukraine in the case of married couples, since Ukrainian law permits such services only for heterosexual married couples.
Italy: punishment even for surrogacy arranged abroad
This is why Italy has gone further. Surrogacy has been banned there since 2004 under Article 12(6) of Law No. 40. The provision imposes a penalty of three months to two years’ imprisonment and a fine of €600,000 to €1 million on anyone who carries out, organizes, or advertises surrogacy.
This solution, however, was relatively easy to circumvent — it was enough to use services abroad, for example in Ukraine, Georgia, or the United States. Giorgia Meloni’s government decided to close this loophole. On the initiative of the Brothers of Italy, the Italian parliament passed an amendment, which the Senate adopted on October 16, 2024, by a vote of 84 to 58. Law No. 169 of November 4, 2024, published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale on November 18 and in force since December 3, 2024, supplemented Article 12 of Law No. 40 with a provision under which, if acts related to surrogacy are committed abroad, an Italian citizen is subject to punishment under Italian law. The Italian media dubbed the new measure a “reato universale” — a universal offense. “This is a common-sense rule against the commodification of women’s and children’s bodies. Human life has no price and is not a commodity,” Giorgia Meloni argued.
The Italian solution shows that a state which treats surrogacy as a form of human trafficking can effectively counteract it even when the practice is organized beyond its borders. It need not stop at mere declarations — it can create real legal tools to limit circumvention of the national ban.
Vigilance and consistency
For years, Ordo Iuris has pointed out that surrogacy is not a service but human trafficking. In connection with the announced conference in Warsaw, the Ordo Iuris Institute filed a notification with the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw regarding BioTexCom, citing Article 211a of the Polish Criminal Code (arranging adoptions in violation of the law for financial gain), Article 189a § 2 of the Criminal Code (preparation for human trafficking), and Article 258 of the Criminal Code (participation in an organized criminal group), and requesting, among other things, a travel ban for those responsible.
As Julia Książek of the Ordo Iuris Center for International Law emphasized, the promotion of commercial reproduction treats a woman’s body as a means of production and the child as a product tailored to the client’s expectations. The Ordo Iuris Institute is also part of an international coalition, coordinated by the group of experts behind the Casablanca Declaration, which is appealing to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to recognize paid surrogacy as the sale of children within the meaning of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
“I was programmed to be abandoned,” said Olivia Maurel, a woman born as a result of surrogacy, during a June conference organized by the Ordo Iuris Institute together with the Research and Teaching Center for Catholic Social Teaching at Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University (UKSW). At the same conference, Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, called for the global abolition of surrogacy.
The Warsaw “conference” of the Ukrainian company BioTexCom has no venue today. That is good news, but it is not the end of the matter. Continued vigilance is needed, both from the owners of conference and hotel venues and from the organs of the state, which should consistently enforce the law in force in Poland.
The best solution, however, would be to follow Italy’s example and adopt legislation providing for severe penalties for the use of surrogate mothers’ services — regardless of whether the practice takes place in Poland or abroad. Only in this way can the path to circumventing the ban be effectively closed and the growth of a market in which the human body and children become objects of transaction be curbed.
A trans person on trial in the German state of Bavaria on charges that include the alleged rape of a teenage girl and the possession of a large collection of child sexual abuse material while serving as a German police officer.
The trial of the 55-year-old defendant — who is a male-to-female trans person and who has been removed from duty — began today, Tuesday morning, at the Traunstein Regional Court, according to German news outlet Rosenheim24.
Prosecutors accuse the trans ex-officer of raping a 14-year-old girl in the toilet stall of a fast food restaurant and of possessing hundreds of files depicting the sexual abuse of children. Investigators say the material includes violent acts against children, with the youngest victims described as about three years old.
Photos of the trans ex-officer in the courtroom show a tall individual with long bleach-blonde hair, a large arm tattoo, and tall platform shoes.
The defendant also faces an accusation of producing animal pornography. The trans ex-officer is alleged to have made videos where the defendant had sex with a dog, along with several sexual partners. It remains unclear if any of these other individuals have been identified.
The most serious charge concerns an incident in August 2025. Prosecutors say that during an outing with a friend, the defendant raped the friend’s 14-year-old daughter in the restroom of a fast-food restaurant. The defendant is also accused of sending a pornographic WhatsApp message to the girl, who was roughly 40 years younger than the defendant.
The court has scheduled four days of hearings. A verdict could be delivered on Oct. 8.
Italian police in Rimini are investigating a suspected rape after a 17-year-old German tourist woke up in a hotel room with a 27-year-old Turkish man. She told police she had no memory of how she arrived at the man’s bed, which led to questions of whether she ingested date-rape drugs.
The girl had gone out with friends on Friday night, Sept. 11, during a holiday on the Adriatic coast. At a club, she met a 27-year-old Turkish tourist staying in the same hotel as her group. Witnesses say the two left the club together. After that, her friends lost contact. Calls and messages went unanswered for hours.
Only later did she successfully reach her friends. She said she had woken up in the man’s room, confused and with no memory of the hours after leaving the club. According to the Italian news agency Ansa, she told friends, in a distressed state: “Maybe I was raped.”
Friends and police found her at the hotel in the Miramare area of Rimini. An ambulance was then called. At the emergency department, she underwent medical and gynecological examinations under Italy’s anti-violence protocol. Doctors secured forensic traces. She said she had drunk alcohol at the club but could not account for what happened afterward.
Numerous German news outlets did not mention the suspect’s Turkish nationality, such as Merkur and t-online. However, outlets Bild and Welt both note the suspect is a Turkish tourist.
Due to the girl blacking out for hours, officers from the Squadra Mobile — the state police unit that handles serious crime — are examining whether she may have been given a substance such as a date-rape drug.
Investigators searched the 27-year-old’s room and seized personal items and his mobile phone. He has no known prior convictions, has denied the allegation, and has been reported as cooperative with police. Italian media say he has been reported for sexual violence; the investigation is continuing.
So far, no charges have been filed. Police are still investigating the details of the night, including how the teenager ended up in the room and whether any drug was involved.
A new poll in Germany has delivered yet another shocking blow to the political establishment. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) has reached 30 percent for the first time while stretching its lead over the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) to 10 points, with the Union reaching a historic low of just 20 percent. In addition, another poll has also put the CDU even lower, at 18 percent.
According to the GMS poll, the governing black-red coalition of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives and the far-left SPD would no longer command a majority. Compared with GMS’s mid-July survey, the Union lost three points and the AfD gained two.
“Important milestone cracked: With 30%, our AfD is now already 10 percentage points ahead of the Union! The citizens want the political change – and they will get it. Time for the AfD!” wrote AfD co-leader Alice Weidel on X.
Wichtige Marke geknackt: Mit 30% liegt unsere AfD nun bereits 10 Prozentpunkte vor der Union! Die Bürger wollen den politischen Wechsel – und sie werden ihn bekommen. Zeit für die AfD! pic.twitter.com/I2MHeUMCZr
Personal ratings for the chancellor are equally grim. In a recent Insa survey, 78 percent of respondents answered “no” when asked, “Is Friedrich Merz (still) the right chancellor?”
Only 14 percent said yes; 8 percent offered no opinion. Even among CDU voters, the picture is bleak for Merz: 58 percent opposed him and just 36 percent supported him.
Pressure inside the CDU is growing. Speculation about a possible change at the top has circulated for weeks, with North Rhine-Westphalia Minister-President Hendrik Wüst and Bavaria’s Markus Söder frequently named as potential successors. Söder, for his part, said the long-standing “firewall” against the AfD is not working.
After AfD's victory in Saxony-Anhalt, Alice Weidel takes Chancellor Merz to task during a raucous debate.
"Because [Germans] have to deal daily with the consequences of mass migration, with the hatred of foreign groups toward their own, with hatred of Christians, with… pic.twitter.com/lBjLNPt9hM
“This ‘firewall model’ has failed,” he said. Instead, he offered a different image: “We in Bavaria see ourselves as a protective wall.” He argued that simply isolating the AfD without confronting its arguments no longer works. Instead, he wants to confront the AfD on issues such as immigration.It remains to be seen how that is possible if the CDU keeps allying with left-wing parties.
However, it is important to note that Söder continues to rule out a cooperation or coalition with the AfD.
“Not talking about the content at all, putting them in a corner and cobbling together some majorities around them without addressing the issues. That is the wrong path,” he said.
AfD co-leader Alice Weidel, speaking after the Saxony-Anhalt vote, engaged in an intense debate with Merz in the Bundestag, saying, “The voters in Saxony-Anhalt have told you in the language of the democratic sovereign with all clarity: black-red is over.”
Merz has countered by calling the AfD a “destructive force” that “wants to destabilize our country.”
State elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin on Sept. 20 will put Merz’s CDU further to the test. Speculation is growing that if the CDU falters during those elections, enormous pressure will be placed on Merz and his role as chancellor could become untenable.
In the eastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, a 14-year-old boy was tortured for hours by ten youths, many of them who were foreigners or of foreign origin. The incident, which happened in the city of Neubrandenburg, saw the youths beat, burn, and insult the victim, all while reportedly filming the incident and subsequently posting it to social media.
The footage, which officers first learned about on Saturday, captures events from the previous Wednesday in the city’s downtown area.
According to investigators, the suspects, who are between the ages of 9- to 15-years-old, kicked and punched the victim, hit him with objects, and burned him.
According to the police report, the boy was “lightly injured,” but it is unclear what injuries he sustained or his psychological state after the ordeal.
Police identified the suspects, who include German, Albanian, Tunisian, and German-Turkish youths. Reports indicate that many of these youths were already known to police. For those youths old enough, charges have already been filed, which include assault, coercion, insult, and violating the victim’s privacy through recordings.
Muslim students beat him because he was German and gay.
"They hated me because I am German, because I was already a homosexual boy back then, and because I did not submit to Sharia, to Islamic laws on German soil," said David Brough (@_david_brg).
It should be noted that it is possible that the German youths have a migration background. The German-Turkish youths may have dual citizenship, which is common in that community.
Those suspects under 14 cannot be held criminally responsible in Germany.
A police spokeswoman described the trigger as a “minor communication misunderstanding that rapidly escalated.”
This is not the only case of group violence involving youths in the city of Neubrandenburg. Within the last two weeks, a witness called police after seeing three 12- to 15-year-olds stomping on a 12-year-old boy. Officers said the two groups are not connected, though both were previously known to them.
Remix News has long reported on such incidents, including one from June of this year in which a group of foreigners whipped and tortured a 12-year-old German youth before sexually assaulting them. Other similar cases occur on a regular basis (here, here, here, here, here, and here).
A Danish high-court ruling has overturned an indefinite detention order against 43-year-old Wasim Essam Hajress, a man previously judged too dangerous to release due to five rapes he committed. The stateless Palestinian, who was born in Lebanon, has now gone from what could have been a life sentence to a fixed prison sentence of two and a half years, a shocking judicial and legal reversal.
In December 2025, the Court of Viborg, Hajress was found so dangerous that the court ruled he should be locked up indefinitely. However, now, the Western High Court, based on an unanimous decision, has taken a different view and has changed the district court’s indefinite detention judgment to a prison sentence of two and a half years.
It is important to note the “indefinite detention” was not the same as a life sentence but theoretically allowed the man to be detained for the remainder of his life. It is generally used in severe cases when a convicted person is considered a serious threat to society and likely to reoffend.
It is also not the standard practice to impose indefinite detention for rape in Denmark but because of Hajress’s violent history of rape, the district court felt that it was necessary as he is too dangerous for the Danish public.
According to Special Prosecutor Malene Christensen of the Attorney General in Viborg, the high court, contrary to the city court, considered that there was no basis for indefinite detention, according to Danish news outlet Presse-Fotos.
Since 2003, Hajress has been convicted of a total of five rapes on Danish soil, which include but are not limited to the following cases. There is no public information available about the details of the 2003 rape case, possibly due to the fact that it is more than two decades ago.
In July 2006, he detained a woman and attempted to rape her in an apartment in Copenhagen. She fled naked after being robbed of her clothes.
In October 2006, he detained a 16-year-old girl and raped her with penetration in an elevator in Huntingvej on Nørrebro, Copenhagen.
In April 2018, he raped a 19-year-old woman in a basement room in Roskilde.
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After AfD's victory in Saxony-Anhalt, Alice Weidel takes Chancellor Merz to task during a raucous debate.
